It keeps them busy, but not sustained. It is the empty, idling. They know they must practice their craft; establish a routine, gaining strength, increasing proficiency so that they will move beyond craftsmanship into authorship. Sadly, they lack influence — tacking to the rear, without understanding their direction. They gather in bachelor herds, fending off outside influence, while they clear their throat, thinking they are practicing the scales.
They work to a formula and claim freedom from the debris of artist thinking. They are lost in their thicket; neither in nor out of the woods.
while I’m working is to try to make interesting photographs, and what to do with them is another act—a later consideration. Certainly while I’m working, I want them to be as useless as possible. Garry Winogrand
his own words, he aimed to “transform the real world into something completely different: into a distinct image.”
“I don’t think it tells you anything about a photographer or work, in a way . . . call me instead a zoo photographer, it doesn’t make any sense to me.” Winogrand spent a brief period teaching photography at the University of Texas (1973-78). The prolific photographer began shooting as soon as he landed, taking pictures of people waiting for their flights in the Austin airport.
—-When you are twenty years old and the photography instructor begins lecturing on form versus content, or that a photograph cannot tell a story, or that there are no rules of composition, or that things are changed when you photograph them, or that a photographic print is an interpretation of the world by a camera, or that he didn’t develop his film for months or years after he shot it; things can get philosophical and confusing pretty quickly.—)( If students were taking Garry’s class to learn photographic techniques and methods, they were sorely disappointed. Garry didn’t teach much technique. That was left to the PJ side of the photography world or to his “TAs”. You have a lifetime to learn technique, he seemed to be saying, but I can teach you what is more important than technique, how to see; learn that and all you have to do afterwards is press the shutter. — Garza
[The one time I used the art department darkroom was when one of the TAs taught us how to develop Tri-X by inspection, the Winogrand way. Using dark green safelights, you let the Tri-X develop about half way then unspooled enough of it to check the density of the first few shots under the green light. Garry put yellow tabs on each roll of film that he shot that told him the lighting condition of that roll. Garry used development by inspection for every roll, and in my later classes I think Garry allowed one of the TAs to process a few rolls of his film. Garry use of inspection development was a bit different than the large view camera negatives where the technique was first pioneered. Gary used it to under develop his film to keep a printable density range (basically, keep the development “flat”). ] Garza
Bibliography
Books
Harris Alex, Friedlander Lee (2004) Arrivals and Departures: The Airport Pictures of Garry Winogrand, Germany. Steidl
Szarkowski John (1988) Winogrand Figments from the Real World, New York The Museum of Modern Art
Papageorge Tod (1977) Garry Winogrand Public Relations. New York The Museum of Modern Art
Parr Martin & Badger Gerry (2004) The Photobook: A History volume 1, London, Phaidon Press Ltd
“Garner Gretchen Garner, age 77, passed away at her residence in Columbus on February 15, 2017, surrounded by the books and art that reflect her career as an educator, artist, and author.”
I knew Ms. Garner mostly by reputation. Talking with her at conferences and such. Then much more when I bought much of her library. Over 200 books; many with note papers and book-markers in them. I didn’t know that she was dying.
I’ve bought several libraries in my years. It always seems a mixture of meanings. Someone is finishing a part of their life — changing. It should be good. Exchange of the unused into the useable. Not even her website remains.
.So, take a look for her work. Read what you can. Make more of your own work. Be certain to spread it about you.
The living doesn’t last long — 50 or so years is a good run. She was among those that helped lift photography from one stage to another.
Some of her publications:
AN ART HISTORY OF EPHEMERA: GRETCHEN GARNER’S CATALOG Photographs by Gretchen Garner Tulip Press, Chicago, 1982 [book is out-of-print] RECLAIMING PARADISE: AMERICANWOMEN PHOTOGRAPH THE LAND Gretchen Garner, Guest Curator Tweed Museum of Art University of Minnesota, Duluth, 1987 [catalog now out-of-priSIX IDEAS IN PHOTOGRAPHY: A CELEBRATION OF PHOTOGRAPHY’S SESQUICENTENNIAL Gretchen Garner, Guest Curator Grand Rapids (MI) Art Museum, 1989 [catalog now out-of-print] DISAPPEARING WITNESS: CHANGE IN 20TH CENTURY AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY Gretchen Garner Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003 [in print, available through booksellers, $34.95 ]
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
1976 – “The Photographic Gesture,” New Art Examiner, October 1977 – “Stanley Milgram: A Psychologist Looks at Photography,” Camera 35, September (also New Art Examiner, February) 1979 – “Monumental Lincoln Park,” Chicago, March 1980 – Vanitas, portfolio of ten photographs 1981 – “The Pencil of Nature, Part II,” Exposure 19:4 1982 – “Interview with Larry Viskochil, Who Keeps Chicago’s Family Album,” Exposure 20:1 1987 – “Are Portraits Possible?” Grand Valley Review 3:1 1988 – “New Metaphorics: Spirit and Symbol in Contemporary Landscape Photography,” Center Quarterly, Center for Photography, Woodstock, NY, Fall 1996 – “A Disappearing Witness: Change in the Practice of Photography,” The Photo Review, Fall/Winter
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